An almanac page from the Madrid codex. At the lower right is a scribe. Deities play drums and rattles: the rain god Chac (upper and lower left); the corn god (top and center right); the sky god Itzamna (center left), inventor of books and writing, and associated with Kukulkan, the feathered serpent. The vulture signifies rain of little value.

Put on your beautiful clothes;
the day of happiness has arrived;
comb the tangles from your hair;
put on your most attractive clothes
and your splendid leather;
hang great pendants in the lobes of
your ears; put on
a good belt; string garlands
around your shapely throat;
put shining coils
on your plump upper arms.
Glorious you will be seen,
for none is more beautiful here
in this town, the seat of Dzitbalche.

I love you, beautiful lady.
I want you to be seen; in
truth you are very alluring,
I compare you to the smoking star
because they desire you up to the moon
and in the flowers of the fields.

Pure and white are your clothes, maiden.
Go give happiness with your laugh,
put goodness in your heart, because today
is the moment of happiness; all people
put their goodness in you.

The days of crying, the days
of evil. The demon is free,
the infernos open,
there is no goodness, only evil,
laments and cries.
An entire year has passed,
the year numbered here.

Come is a month of
days without name,
painful days, days of evil,
black days.

The beautiful light of the eyes of
Hunabku for his earthly sons
has not yet come,
because during these days
the transgressions of all people on earth
are measured:
men and women, children and adults
poor and rich, wise and ignorant;
Lord Serpent, commissioner,
governor, captain, rain priest,
councilors, constables.
All people's transgressions are measured in
these days; because the time
will come when
these days will mark the end
of the world.

For this
there will be a count of all
the transgressions of people
here on earth.
Into a great glass
made from the clay of tree termites,
Hunabku puts the tears
from those who cry over the evils
done on earth.
When the great glass is filled to the brim
it will end.

Essential
to count the haab years or katun'oob
that have passed since
the great powerful men
raised the walls of the ancient cities
that we see now
here in the province of the plains,
all these cities scattered
on the earth
here and there, on high hills.

Here in the cities, we try to give
meaning to what we see today in the skies
and what we know;
for day to day
at midday
we see in the skies
the signs told to us by
the ancient people of this land,
the ancient people of these villages
here on our earth.

Let us purify our hearts
so at nightfall,
and at midnight,
from horizon to zenith
we may read the face of the sky.

To you,
human,
I come to tell you
that here in this region,
this plain,
here in this land,
back in the era of ancient giants
and hunchbacks
when even no people such as us
had as yet ever arrived,
a very long time ago
Lord Centipede passed here,
and had with him seven jumping heads;
you could see them
quickly crossing the road
to devour you
or put evil
in your life
if you could not understand
the riddle he asked.

But the day arrived
when there was one who answered.
When he heard,
Lord Centipede became furious
because one had understood, responded
and answered his riddle.

So it was Lord Centipede
who was the one who was tricked,
became gravely ill, and died.